The Song Donovan Refused to Replace — And It Started His Entire Career

London, 1965.

Donovan was still an unknown young folk singer.

He had no hit record.

He didn't even have a record contract.

But he had something that would soon become much more valuable:

a song he believed in.

Donovan had been appearing on the British television programme Ready Steady Go! and performing live with his guitar. According to Donovan, he appeared on the programme for three consecutive weeks despite not yet having a recording contract.

The television appearances finally attracted the attention of a record company.

But there was a catch.

They wanted him to record a song written by somebody else.

Donovan refused.

He already had his own song.

It was called “Catch the Wind.”

He later recalled that he finished the song in only a couple of hours.

That decision was the beginning of everything.

In February 1965, Donovan went into London's Olympic Studios to record it. The original single was remarkably simple: Donovan's voice and guitar surrounded by strings, with the production giving his vocal a distinctive echo.

There was something almost fragile about the recording.

At a time when British pop was becoming increasingly loud and energetic, Donovan's song went in the opposite direction.

Quiet.

Intimate.

Almost whispered.

The lyrics describe trying to hold on to something impossible — love, memory, another person.

The title itself captures the impossibility:

How do you catch the wind?

You can't.

And that became the metaphor at the heart of the song.

The recording was released in Britain in March 1965 as Donovan's debut single.

Nobody could have known that the young folk singer had just recorded the beginning of an extraordinary career.

Then the charts began to move.

And move.

Catch the Wind eventually reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, spending 13 weeks in the chart.

In America, it reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Suddenly, Donovan wasn't simply a young man with a guitar appearing on television.

He was a recording artist.

And the song he had insisted on recording himself had become his first major success.

But there is a fascinating second chapter to the story.

The version that originally became the hit was not the version Donovan would eventually become best known for.

When his debut album What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was released, another version of Catch the Wind appeared.

It removed the vocal echo and strings and added harmonica, giving the song a more intimate folk character.

Then, several years later, another version appeared.

When Epic Records prepared Donovan's Greatest Hits in 1968, the label couldn't — or wouldn't — use the original recordings of Catch the Wind and Colours.

So Donovan went back into the studio.

He recorded Catch the Wind again.

This time, there was a full backing band.

The quiet folk song had become folk-rock.

Mickie Most produced the new recording, while musicians including Big Jim Sullivan contributed to the fuller arrangement.

That means there are effectively several important versions of the same song.

The original 1965 single.

The more stripped-down album recording.

And the fuller 1968 re-recording.

Each one captures a different Donovan.

The first is the young folk singer trying to get his career started.

The later recording belongs to the psychedelic and folk-rock era that Donovan would help define.